Comment: Although I oppose digital

Although I oppose digital money and believe bit coin is a scam, I think Adam argued well for understanding money when he discussed perception and value, particularly when value is based on what is external to the individuals proposing trading with each other.

Recognizing this relationship -- a worth of a thing for self based on people's worth of that thing -- is helpful in understanding money because it, this relationship, can be harmful or beneficial. Most times, however, it is harmful. Here's why.

In the instances this relationship is harmful, it is a wedge, if you will, a wedge in that its use by persons A and B is because someone inserted it between them; this currency didn't come from persons A and B, it came from outside them and its worth depends on all its users. This dependence invites people to speculate on it, that is, to buy and sell it, which can create huge swings of its worth, resulting in eviscerating or growing wealth exponentially over night, which is how today's currencies operate, isn't it? Perhaps needless to say, wealth creation or destruction from this means doesn't come from honest work.

People involved in speculation, which occurs in consolidation and necessitates ownership of two or more currencies, succeed necessarily at the expense of others. Both kinds of persons, the speculator and the person who doesn't put his mind to evaluating money's value except when he prepares himself to trade (which means its value is applied from something besides him and who he'd transact with), must spend their lives thinking about money. But again, the latter person isn't living to his money, isn't a slave to his money, a slave being what the speculator is to his money; rather he, the latter person, is living his life. So, in an environment speculation is in, the latter person loses. He loses his money and what his money is attached to, what he owns. All along, "his" money belonged and belongs to everyone who uses that currency, evidence that the money scheme, or structure, doesn't derive from individuals applying their values to what they'd trade but, simply, that they're part of a pyramid (scheme), a construct that is (external) control.

Be aware the two monetary schemes: collectivist (whose result, good or bad, is based on how it functions) and individualist. There's a world of difference between them.